The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

Publisher's Summary

From best-selling author Neal Stephenson and critically acclaimed historical and contemporary commercial novelist Nicole Galland comes a captivating and complex near-future thriller combining history, science, magic, mystery, intrigue, and adventure that questions the very foundations of the modern world.

When Melisande Stokes, an expert in linguistics and languages, accidently meets military intelligence operator Tristan Lyons in a hallway at Harvard University, it is the beginning of a chain of events that will alter their lives and human history itself. The young man from a shadowy government entity approaches Mel, a low-level faculty member, with an incredible offer. The only condition: She must sign a nondisclosure agreement in return for the rather large sum of money.

Tristan needs Mel to translate some very old documents, which, if authentic, are earth-shattering. They prove that magic actually existed and was practiced for centuries. But the arrival of the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment weakened its power and endangered its practitioners. Magic stopped working altogether in 1851, at the time of the Great Exhibition at London's Crystal Palace - the world's fair celebrating the rise of industrial technology and commerce. Something about the modern world "jams" the "frequencies" used by magic, and it's up to Tristan to find out why.

And so the Department of Diachronic Operations - D.O.D.O. - gets cracking on its real mission: to develop a device that can bring magic back and send Diachronic Operatives back in time to keep it alive...and meddle with a little history at the same time. But while Tristan and his expanding operation master the science and build the technology, they overlook the mercurial - and treacherous - nature of the human heart.

Written with the genius, complexity, and innovation that characterize all of Neal Stephenson's work and steeped with the down-to-earth warmth and humor of Nicole Galland's storytelling style, this exciting and vividly realized work of science fiction will make you believe in the impossible and take you to places - and times - beyond imagining.

Full cast of narrators includes Robert Fass, James Foster, Tavia Gilbert, Arthur Morey, David Stifel, Charlie Thurston, and Kate Udall.

©2017 Neal Stephenson (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Exceptional voice cast, unconventional format

Would you try another book from Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland and/or the narrators?

Absolutely

Would you listen to another book narrated by the narrators?

Yes

Any additional comments?

This was not my favorite, but it was fun and it held my attention.

The book is written entirely in the form of documentation produced by various characters. The first act of the book is entirely composed of a single document written by one character, so the book feels like a familiar first-person perspective story. Later, the book shifts to documents written by other characters, and that familiarity breaks down. Much of the later sections contain chat logs and IM transcripts.

The two main characters are Melisande Stokes, who specializes in ancient languages, and Tristan Lyons - a military man who loves science. I found this paralleled the dual authors Nicole Galland, who I understand specializes in historical fiction, and Neal Stephenson, who takes joy in writing about science, technology, ancient warfare, and specifically money (as a technology). I suspect the writing duties fell mainly on Nicole Galland, but I would start to hear Neal Stephenson's voice in the ruminations of Tristan, and later any character who needed to explain technology or swordsmanship. Also, I am pretty sure Neal Stephenson wrote the epic poem towards the end that features the viking sacking of an unconventional target.

Like most books, I read this partially on my Kindle and partially as an audio book on Audible - my preferred way to consume a book, as I can read comfortably in a chair after work, and then continue over audio while driving. The audio presentation featured a full cast, which is wonderful, though often one character was speaking through another characters document, so different performers would read the same character depending on the document being read - which was kind of... unsettling. Also, the chat logs necessitated a name and timestamp on every reply, which crippled the rhythm when the replies were brief.

Any fan of either of these authors is probably going to enjoy this book. Also, it would appeal to fans of time travel and those who enjoy blurring the lines between fantasy and science fiction.

91 of 97 people found this review helpful

Really, really fun

Would you listen to The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. again? Why?

No -- or at least not for a decade or so. I would want to have forgotten the plot.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.?

The Lay of Walmart. I say no more.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No. I was at first suspicious of the multiple-narrator format since I often don't like that mix. But this one worked for me, and was not distracting. The voice of Melisande was especially good.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No!! I loved listening to it, and looked forward to being in my car to do so, but I'm not a masochist.

Any additional comments?

For those interested in format, it is fun (especially for a historian, which I am) to have it written as a series of documents. They are chatty enough and contain enough dialogue that they do not seem dry, but the shifting perspectives drive the narrative in interesting and provocative ways.

74 of 81 people found this review helpful

Stephenson teams up for time travel

Neal Stephenson has written some of the most densely plotted sci-fi thrillers of the past few decades. In this book he teamed up with Nicole Galland, who has contributed to several of the Mongoliad books as well as writing several books set in early England, to create a lighter-than-usual book on time travel. 

D.O.D.O. is a secret US agency, the Department of Diachronic Operations. The agency has been established because it has been determined that magic was both real and common up until 1851. At that point magic weakened and then became nonexistent.

Melisande Stokes, a polyglot and specialist in languages, is recruited to assist in the investigation of what event might have triggered this change. And it's clear that something has gone terribly wrong because the book opens with her own penned narrative of how she somehow became trapped in London of 1851 with no apparent way back.

To aid the work the agency also recruits the services of a famous Harvard physicist and a 250 year-old Hungarian witch. The physicist has created a device in which magic still works, while the witch was encouraged to extend her life (apparently by Melisande herself) in order to assist the work.

D.O.D.O. faces several issues, not the least of which is a knack for embarrassing acronyms. There are elements in the government that want to defund the agency. This leads to an attempt (ala Jodi Taylor) to go back in time to place a rare book in a spot where it can be dug up and sold to help fund operations. Unlike the operations of Taylor's St. Mary's historians this is a much more complex operation, requiring multiple trips into the past and into various timelines to try to get the operation to work properly. During one of these multiple trips it becomes apparent that some other entity is interfering with the plan. This leads them to an earlier point in England where a beautiful Irish witch, former lover of Christopher Marlowe and correspondent/spy for Irish pirate Grace O'Malley, is recruited but clearly has an agenda all her own.

Galland offers a lighter touch with more humor than Stephenson normally offers on his own, and brings up some interesting historical ideas, such as that many of the plays of Shakespeare, even Romeo and Juliet, have intentionally anti-Irish themes. The story ranges from early San Francisco to Istanbul with some really wonderful characters. It's told through various points of view, including snippets of interoffice memos and redacted documents.

For those who are expecting a straight-ahead Stephenson thriller this is a book that could bring some disappointment. But anyone with an interest in books on history and time-travel this is a very fun shift in the Stephenson canon, with more attention to character and historic detail than many time travel books.

64 of 70 people found this review helpful

Bureaucratic time travel with an eye for details

Any additional comments?

This is one of those books that took me a few days to fully process after finishing it, as a result I can safely say this is a good book.

This book is definitely not about characters X, Y, and Z doing cool things and beating the Big Bad. No, it is the records of the rise and fall of the organization D.O.D.O. I didn't realize this at first, but once I did, it all came together and I could appreciate it and enjoy it all the more.

All that aside, what we have here is the proving that magic existed once, but then it stopped suddenly on one auspicious day. How to bring back magic in a limited fashion and using it to send people back in time to manipulate things so the world becomes a little better, or before the enemies unseen do it first. Great plan right? Well at least until bureaucracy rears its ugly head. Seriously, the skill with which Stephenson wrote the bureaucratic nightmare and the awful coworkers was so realistic it made me uncomfortable. Additionally there are all kinds of very accurate portrayals of the past that breath life into it. Did you know whalebone bodices had to be custom made? Whodathunkit?

That's all you really need to know. If you like Stephenson's other works, or a totally different retreading of the time travel genre, I recommend this book to you. Overall, I doubt many people would be disappointed that they picked this one up.

31 of 34 people found this review helpful

About that Ending

Over the years I have seen many people complain about Stephenson's endings and never really got the problem, but this novel really seemed to end like a Season One cliffhanger on a tv show more than a stand-alone novel (or even the first novel in a series, which I don't know if this is meant to be). If the story had ended just a few scenes earlier I would have felt it was abrupt but answered my major questions... instead it seemed to go from messy conclusion to plot-point-rich opening to the really important stuff.

I would have given the story a 4, maybe a 3, but the disappointment at the end (relatively mild as it might be) tipped me over.

Still, the performances were great (recognized a number of familiar voices) and it overall delivered on a fun concept.

29 of 32 people found this review helpful

Great Genre-bender

It was a genre-mixing romp through time, science and magic, mixing witchcraft and quantum mechanical time travel with Wal-Mart raiding Vikings. Very entertaining!

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

You will not regret the journey!

It is a long book. As such I hardly remember when it started. It was such a long and enjoyable journey. Its very difficult to pinpoint and identify the type of the book. Is it a science fiction? Well it deals with time travel but also with ancient witches. Is it a fantasy story? Well, not exactly. At the end of the day its the attempt to save science and technology. Is it a satire on a secretive bureaucratic government agency and how it deals with witches on its payroll? Well, that definitely part of the more hilarious and funny themes withing the story. So the short answer is that you will find in it so many themes and subjects, woven brilliantly together into a great and enjoyable adventure with a lot of fun and leave you with a lot to think about.. .

One of the more interesting (though definitely not necessarily a main theme) is how a small startup can succeed against all odds, and when it finally become successful, the 'processes and structures' put in place on top of its enthusiastic founders bring it to a spectacular fall down (and seeing what's happening to Uber these days, it is a kind of an eye opening parable).

Some readers were critics about the format of the book. I believe that the format which is kind of constructed of 'communication logs', diaries, etc' where there is not a single 'know all' author make the reading / listening much more rich and enjoyable experience. The superb audio production with so many narrators, each with its own unique accent add so much to the 'written' story, makes it not just a 'for driving time' experience but the recommended format to consume this book.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Meh...I feel like I wasted my time.

A lot of little mini adventures and following characters around doing nothing. All that slowly builds to not much of an ending....
Performers were good though. They are about the only good thing about the book.

19 of 22 people found this review helpful

Imaginative, Intriguing and Captivating.

Having read and listened to so many books over several decades, I am not easily impressed. I liked everything about this one. Each narrator was excellent! Great characters and not one of them got on my nerves hahahaha. With most books I usually am busy doing something like painting while listening but I found myself stopping, staring at nothing, listening. So yes it's meaty. If you want Fantasy, Science fiction, Fictional history, time travel, etc then this is for you.

19 of 22 people found this review helpful

Long but interesting

Where does The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Average

Who was your favorite character and why?

none

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

Better then average.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

no

Any additional comments?

Although this writer seems to produce books as though he is being paid by the word he is
different and unique.

35 of 42 people found this review helpful

Slow and plodding story, awful narrator.

A good editor could have shortened this story by two-thirds. It grinds slowly on, filled with mundane minutiae, while the narrator delights in giving all the characters silly voices. Gave up after a few chapters.